


Centerfold

by thisisthefamilybusiness



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Awkward Arcade Gannon, Awkward Boners, Awkward Conversations, Ghouls, Kissing, M/M, Nude Modeling, Porn Magazines, Post-Canon, There is no real porn here but Arcade thinks about it a lot if that counts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 16:59:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14938268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisthefamilybusiness/pseuds/thisisthefamilybusiness
Summary: Raul clears his throat, staring down at the magazine. “Look, hoss, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if you’re trying to get an old vaquero in bed, there’s a lot better--”“Oh my God,” Arcade shouts, flailing his arms and yanking up the magazine. “Oh God, no. No, nope. Not like that. I meant, like....” Arcade fumbles with the pages of the magazine for a moment before finally pulling out the centerfold. “Look at this,” he hisses victoriously.Raul just whistles.





	Centerfold

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why I started writing this, but I do know I finished it because mr. new vegas' fanclub asked me to. 
> 
> Title credit to the song of the same name by The J. Geils Band. I've never claimed to be creative.

“I have something personal to discuss with you,” Arcade says, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Very personal. And very urgent.”

Raul shoots Arcade a look, closing his battered copy of whichever Western he was reading this week. “Alright, but this better be important.”

Arcade didn’t reply, just bolted for his room in the Lucky 38. Raul rolled his eyes, but dutifully followed Arcade to his dimly-lit room, where the bed was unmade and a magazine lay out on one of the pillows.

WILD WILD WASTELANDERS, VOLUME 29: MEN OF THE NCR EDITION, the cover screamed in bright white text. THEY’RE BATTLE-HARD AND READY FOR YOU! SIXTEEN OF THE HOTTEST NCR BOYS IN THE WASTELAND! NOW WITH FULL COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL ANGELO! 

Raul clears his throat, staring down at the magazine. “Look, hoss, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if you’re trying to get an old vaquero in bed, there’s a lot better--”

“Oh my God,” Arcade shouts, flailing his arms and yanking up the magazine. “Oh God, no. No, nope. Not like that. I meant, like....” Arcade fumbles with the pages of the magazine for a moment before finally pulling out the centerfold. “Look at this,” he hisses victoriously.

Raul just whistles. 

It’s the sniper from Novac that Six runs with sometimes, oiled up and posed dramatically over an anti-material rifle, wearing nothing but his red NCR beret and dark-tinted sunglasses. 

“Your point, kid?” Raul finally asks, quirking one non-existent eyebrow up as he looks at Arcade, who by now is redder than a tato. 

“Well, it’s, it’s weird, right? Shouldn’t Six know?”

“What, you wanna tell the boss that her sniper buddy has a porno career and you know because you bought some of his work?” Raul folds his arms over his chest and starts towards the door to Arcade’s room.

“Well,” Arcade stammers. “It’s weird.”

“What’s weird is that you tried to show a man six times your age a porno rag because one of your friends is in it. Some secrets you gotta keep to yourself, hoss.” Raul shook his head. “You gotta work on the keeping things to yourself.”

* * *

It’s not really a subscription. It’s more of a.... Monthly arrangement. Every month, Arcade pretends he needs something from Westside for his experiments and goes to Miguel’s Pawn Shop. He gives Miguel a few stimpaks and in exchange, Miguel slips him the newest copy of WILD WILD WASTELANDERS in a beat-up paper bag. 

God, it’s somehow more embarrassing than if he just went to the Gomorrah and paid a hooker. 

“You sure you want this month’s?” Miguel asks,  pulling a copy out from under the counter. “It’s the ghoul issue.”

“Yeah.” Arcade fumbles in his pocket for the stimpaks hurriedly. 

“Didn’t think you were into necrosis.” Miguel snorts and takes the stimpaks quickly, dropping them into a lockbox. He slides the magazine into the bag. 

“Maybe I am.” Oh shit. That’s not the right kind of witty quip to make. Arcade swallows audibly, grabs the bag from Miguel, and practically bolts out the door. The less time he spends in there, the less of a chance he has to make an ass out of himself.

* * *

It’s Raul. It’s totally, unquestionably Raul. The moustache is the same, and there’s the same weird radiation burn scar on his right hand--it’s got to be Raul.

Arcade wants to close the magazine, and maybe burn it. He has enough weird thoughts about the old ghoul, he doesn’t really need to be adding any fuel to the fire. He definitely does not need to see the ghoul naked.

But to be honest--there was a reason Arcade kept the magazine, even though ghouls weren’t his usual style. And  yes, maybe that reason did have something to do with Raul, but Arcade wasn’t about to start philosophizing about what his taste in porn meant.

And, yes. Yes, it was kind of hot. Raul.... was in very good condition and very good shape, and okay, it was quickly becoming less weird to have a boner and look at Raul, and almost... No, actually, it was really hot. It was really hot, and Arcade can sort of imagine how it’d be just as hot to feel the texture differences of Raul’s skin and---

Okay. Yeah. Arcade’s not gonna burn the magazine after all. 

* * *

It was a gamble, but Raul’s had enough bad luck in his life that it has to come around sometime. Why not now? 

And if he misread Arcade, it wasn’t a total loss. He made the easiest thousand caps of his life and didn’t have a half-bad time doing it, too. Michael Angelo had said that the ghoul issue didn’t always sell as well as the regular ones, but Six was Vegas’s hottest topic, and any interview with someone who spent more than a day with her was guaranteed to sell. 

Six is back in the Lucky 38 when Raul finally meanders in, ED-E beeping happily in her lap as she sips at a sarsaparilla on a couch on the first floor. “How was the Big Empty, boss?” Raul asks after pressing the elevator button.

“Okay.” Six pets ED-E absently. “Fell off a balcony. Got attacked by a lobotomite. Veronica laughed at me the whole time.” 

“Sounds like fun.” Raul huffs a laugh and gets on the elevator. He knows Arcade will be in his room, of course. It’s late enough at night that only Six would be out and about, as wide awake at midnight as she was at noon. The issue had just come out yesterday, there was no reason to assume that Arcade already had a copy and had seen it--but it didn’t hurt any to imagine, did it?

The elevator dings and Raul starts walking to his room automatically, but he pauses at Arcade’s door. The light is still on, and Radio New Vegas is playing softly. Well, what does he have to lose? Raul knocks on the door anyway. 

* * *

It’s unexpected when Raul finally invades his personal space instead of staring at the incriminating magazine open on the bed from the doorframe, but lately Arcade’s entire life has been unexpected, so it only makes sense that every once in a while he gets a surprise that isn’t objectively terrible. Raul’s hands settle on Arcades hips and it’s awkward but it’s a good kind of awkward and Arcade leans in and, yes, finally, they’re kissing. It’s not as different from kissing a smoothskin--like the ghouls say--as Arcade had imagined. It’s actually really, really nice, but then again, that probably has more to do with the fact that it’s Raul he’s kissing. The man the lips are attached to does make a difference. 

Not that Arcade’s going to go around kissing other ghouls to test that hypothesis. 

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](officialclaricestarling.tumblr.com)


End file.
